her writings would have been more extensively known, and would not be buried, as they now are, in classic dust. Her Latin style is peculiarly excellent.

most complete success. Her brow was encircled | sway in Bologna. Had Laura written in Italian, by a silver crown, ornamented with laurel leaves, which was offered by Dr. Bazzani in the name of the faculty. In investing her with the gown which was the ensign of her degree, he addressed her with a Latin oration; to which she made a most elegant extemporaneous reply in the same language. A dinner was given the next day, at the request of the cardinal de Polignac, when all the men of eminent ability were confronted with Laura, and every effort was made to sound her depths; but it was found that not one of these illustrious personages could compete with, or meet her at all points, so various were her acquirements, so subtle her wit, and so solid her understanding.

She was modest and unaffected; her memory was very great, her understanding strong, and her conversation enlivened by sallies of wit. She died in 1778, of a disease of the lungs.

Her mortal remains were interred with solemn obsequies. She was buried with the doctor's gown, and silver laurel. Her works remaining are:-An epic poem in manuscript; some poems published by Gobbi; "De problemate quodam Hydrometico, De problemate quodam Mecanico, published by the institute;" some experiments and discoveries on the compression of the air.

The highest honours were, after this, bestowed upon her; and the senate, considering that she reflected honours upon the city, settled a pension on her, to enable her to continue her studies without anxiety. The attentions she received brought her into the world, and obliged her to make many visits, and go to assemblies. Mingling in society, she was destined to give up her life of solitary study. She formed an attachment for Dr. Veratti, a celebrated physician, and professor of the institute; this ended in a marriage, when she shone as a wife and mother with admirable domestic qualities, equalling her scholastic ones.

BAYNARD, ANNE,

ONLY daughter of Edward Baynard, an eminent physician, was born at Preston, Lancashire, England, 1672. She was well instructed in the classics and sciences, and wrote Latin with ease and correctness. At the age of twenty-three, she had the knowledge of a profound philosopher. She often said "that it was a sin to be content with a little knowledge."

To the endowments of mind, she added the virtues of the heart; she was pious, benevolent, and simple in her manners; retired, and perhaps too

tion of her small income for charitable purposes; and to this she added an ardent desire and strenuous efforts for the mental and moral improvement of all within her influence.

It may here be remarked, that women, who possess some trivial accomplishments, some little skill in music, or futile propensity to write ephe-rigid in her habits. She always put aside a pormeral verses, assume that these occupations place them above household duties, which are therefore neglected; and that, on the other hand, which is perhaps a more general error, many women declare that the attention due to their families' physical comforts, condemns their own minds to intellectual barrenness, and so clips the wings of their immortal souls that they can reach no flight beyond the consideration of domestic matters. They trust the education and training of their children to hired teachers; while the higher duty of stitching seams, and superintending joints of meats, must be reserved for their own superior intelligence and personal vigilance.

The life of Laura Bassi offers a lesson to both of these classes. She was mother of a numerous offspring, all of whom were most carefully attended to; as a wife, she was a model of tenderness. Mistress of a household, her frugality, and, at the same time, generous hospitality were remarkable; in fine, her abode was a scene of domestic comfort and happiness. But these essential occupations did by no means interfere with her scientific pursuits. Not only did she keep up with the other professors, but it was conceded that not a man in the university could read and speculate to the extent she manifested, by her experiments in natural philosophy, and her treatises on logical subjects. Besides this, for twenty-eight years, she carried on in her own house a course of experimental philosophy; until the senate selected her to give public lectures on the subject, in the university, as professor of this science. It is a great pity The following character is given of this lady in that the pedantic custom of using the Latin lan- Mr. Collier's Historical Dictionary. “Anne Bayguage for scientific and literary purposes still held | nard, for her prudence, piety, and learning, de

About two years previous to her death, her spirits seem to have been impressed with an idea of her early dissolution; a sentiment which first suggested itself to her mind while walking alone, among the tombs, in a church-yard; and which she indulged with a kind of superstitious complacency. On her death-bed, she earnestly entreated the minister who attended her, that he would exhort all the young people of his congregation to the study of wisdom and knowledge, as the means of moral improvement, and real happiness. "I could wish," says she, "that all young persons might be exhorted to the practice of virtue, and to increase their knowledge by the study of philosophy; and more especially to read the great book of nature, wherein they may see the wisdom and power of the Creator, in the order of the universe, and in the production and preservation of all things." "That women are capable of such improvements, which will better their judgments and understandings, is past all doubt, would they but set about it in earnest, and spend but half of that time in study and thinking, which they do in visits, vanity, and folly. It would introduce a composure of mind, and lay a solid basis for wisdom and knowledge, by which they would be better enabled to serve God, and to help their neighbours."

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early such indications of genius, that a monk, Denis Fauchier, undertook the care of her education. In a little time she made so great a progress, that she equalled the most learned men of the age. Her Latin and French poems, letters, and treatises, for acuteness and solidity, have been classed with the ancient philosophers. She maintained a correspondence with many learned men in France and Italy. Francis I. of France was so charmed with the letters of this abbess, that he carried them about him, and showed them as models worthy of imitation. He went with his sister, Margaret of Navarre, to Tarascon on purpose to see this celebrated lady. She died in 1547.

to England. But her intelligence (though well grounded, as the event showed) being disregarded and ridiculed, she renounced all state affairs, and amused herself during her stay at Antwerp, with the pleasures of the city.

After some time she embarked at Dunkirk for England, and in the passage was near being lost; the ship was driven on the coast for four days, but by the assistance of boats the crew were all saved.

Mrs. Behn published three volumes of poems; the first in 1684, the second in 1685, the third in 1688. They consist of songs and other little pieces, by the earl of Rochester, sir George Etherage, Mr. Henry Crisp, and others, with some pieces of her own. To the second volume is annexed a translation of the duke de Rochefoucault's moral reflections, under the title of "Seneca Unmasked." She wrote also seventeen plays, some

BEHN, APHRA,

A CELEBRATED English poetess, was descended from a good family in the city of Canterbury. She was born in the reign of Charles I., but in what year is uncertain. Her father's name was John-histories and novels. She translated Fontenelle's

son. He was related to lord Willoughby, and by his interest was appointed lieutenant-general of Surinam and thirty-six islands, and embarked for the West Indies when Aphra was very young. Mr. Johnson died on the passage, but his family arrived at Surinam, where Aphra became acquainted with the American prince Oroonoko, whose story she bas given in her celebrated novel of that name. She relates that "she had often seen and conversed with that great man, and been a witness to many of his mighty actions; and that at one time, he and Imoinda his wife, were scarce an hour in a day from her lodgings." The intimacy between Oroonoko and the poetess occasioned some reflections on her conduct, from which she was subsequently cleared.

History of Oracles, and Plurality of Worlds, to which last she annexed an essay on translation and translated prose. The Paraphrase of Ænone's Epistle to Paris, in the English translation of Ovid's Epistles, is Mrs. Behn's; and Mr. Dryden, in the preface to that work, pays her the following compliment: - "I was desired to say, that the author, who is of the fair sex, understood not Latin; but if she do not, I am afraid she has given us who do, occasion to be ashamed." She was also the authoress of the celebrated Letters between "A Nobleman and his Sister," printed in 1684; and of eight love-letters to a gentleman whom she passionately loved, and with whom she corresponded under the name of Lycidas. She died, after a long indisposition, April 16th, 1689, and was buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey.

The afflictions she met with at Surinam, in the death of her parents and relations, obliged her to return to England, where, soon after her arrival, she married Mr. Behn, an eminent merchant in London, of Dutch extraction. King Charles II., whom she highly pleased by the entertaining and accurate account she gave him of the colony of Surinam, thought her a proper person to be entrusted with the management of some affairs during the Dutch war, which was the cause of her going to Antwerp. Here she discovered the design formed by the Dutch, of sailing up the Thames, in order to burn the English ships; she made this discovery through her lover, Vander Albert, a Dutchman. This man, who had been in love with her in England, no sooner heard of her arrival at Antwerp, than he paid her a visit; and after a repetition of all his former professions, pressed her extremely to allow him by some signal means to give undeniable proofs of his passion. She accepted this proposal, and employed him in such a manner as made her very serviceable to king Charles I.

BEKKER, ELIZABETH,

AN ornament of Dutch literature, was born at Flushing, in 1738, and died at the Hague, in 1804. Few female authors have united to so great talents such dignity and purity of morals. Several of her numerous works are considered classics in Dutch literature; especially her romances of "William Leevend;" "Letters of A. Blankhart to C. Wildschut;" and the " History of Sara Bürgerhart." She wrote her most important works in conjunction with her friend Agatha Deken, and the share of each of them in the composition is unknown. Agatha Deken survived her friend only nine days.

BELLAMY, GEORGIANA,

AN actress of some celebrity, was born in 1733. Her mother was a Miss Searle, the mistress of lord Trelawny, who afterwards married captain Bellamy. He separated from her on discovering her infidelity. Miss Bellamy was brought out by Mr. Garrick at the Covent-Garden theatre at the age of fourteen, and met with much success for some years. She died at Edinburgh, in deep distress, in 1788. Her life was a series of errors and misfortunes. She wrote her own memoirs in six

The latter end of the year 1666, Albert sent her word by a special messenger that he would be with her at an appointed time, when he revealed to her that Cornelius de Witt and De Ruyter had proposed the abovementioned expedition. Mrs. Behn could not doubt the truth of this communication, and sent information of it immediately by express volumes.

sex.

enjoyed great popularity for his rich comic talent, | Bertana, a gentleman of Modena, where she reand she then made her first appearance on the stage. Her agreeable voice induced her to appear first at the opera. She soon acquired by her singing and acting, in naïf as well as in sentimental parts, the undivided approbation of the public; and was called, with her husband, to Berlin, where she became one of the first actresses that Germany has produced, both in tragedy and comedy. In 1803 she was divorced from her husband to marry the renowned Mr. Bethmann. She died in 1814. A truly creative fancy, deep and tender feeling, and an acute understanding, were united in her with a graceful, slender figure, an expressive countenance, and a voice, which, from its flexibility and melodiousness, was fit to touch the deepest chords of the heart, and to mark with rare perfection the nicest shades of thought and feeling.

sided after her marriage. She was not only celebrated for her poetry, but possessed a vigorous and polished prose style. She cultivated music and painting, and turned her attention to what was at that time a respectable and sensible object of study, astrology. Besides these accomplishments, Lucia was gifted with all the virtues of her She was amiable and gentle, and her excellent disposition was manifested in an attempt she most earnestly made to effect a reconciliation between two rival men of letters, Caro and Castelvetro. She conducted the matter with the utmost delicacy and good sense-appealed to the better feelings of each-and tried to show how unworthy of their superior abilities, and solid reputation, was this unmeaning bickering. She died in Rome in 1567. Her remains were interred in the church of St. Sabina, where her husband elevated a superb monument to her memory. The estimation of various learned societies endeavoured to immortalize her by other - medals were struck to her fame, which may yet be found in Italian Museums. The following from her pen has been much admired:

means

SONNET.
Or musa mia lieta e sicura andrai

Per folti boschi e per ameni colli,
Cogli occhi asciutti che già furon molli
Al chiaro fonte ove mercè trovai.

BERTANA, LUCIA.

IN the sixteenth century the literary annals of Italy shone with illustrious names, and among these may be found many women assiduously cultivating poetry and science, and attaining no mean proficiency in these elevated pursuits. Naples boasted Vittoria Colonna, and a few years afterwards, Laura Terracini. Padua possessed Gaspara Stampa; Brescia, Veronica Gambara; and Modena, Tarquenia Molza. At Bologna, among many poetesses at that time, we find Ippolita Paleotti writing elegant verses in Greek and in Latin; the nun Febronia Pannolini, remarkable for her choice prose, and flowing hymns, as well in Latin as in Italian; and Valeria Miani, who achieved that difficulty some male sceptics arrogantly refuse to feminine capacity - a successful tragedy. But among all the Bolognese women, the crown must be yielded to Lucia Bertana. Not only contemporary authorities award her this praise, but Maffei, in his "History of Italian literature," gives her the third place among the most admirable poetesses of the sixteenth century, preferring only Vittoria Colonna and Veronica Gambara. She was born at Bologna, of the family Dall'Oro, in 1521; and became the wife of Gerone

Quivi con le sorelle canterai

I miei pensieri per letizia folli,
Piochè i desiri miei fatti ha satolli
Questo Aristarco, e me tratta di guai.

Ed al gran Castelvetro in atto umile,

Dirai, se il ceil mi dà tanto valore
Degno di voi, ed al gran merto eguale,

Che posta avrai mai sempre e lingua e stile
In celebrar questo chiaro splendore
Onde mi farai forse anche immortale.

BLAKE, KATHARINE,

WIFE of William Blake, the artist, was born in humble life, and first noticed by the young painter for the whiteness of her hand and the sylph-like beauty of her form. Her maiden name was Boutcher, not a pretty name to set in rhyme, but her lover inscribed his lyrics to the "dark-eyed Kate." He also drew her picture; and finding she had good domestic qualities, he married her. They lived long and happily together. A writer, who knew them intimately, thus describes her:

"She seemed to have been created on purpose for Blake: she believed him to be the finest genius on earth; she believed in his verse; she believed in his designs; and to the wildest flights of his imagination she bowed the knee, and was a worshipper. She set his house in good order, prepared his frugal meal, learned to think as he thought, and, indulging him in his harmless absurdities, became as it were bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. She learned-what a young and handsome woman is seldom apt to learn to despise gaudy dresses, costly meals, pleasant company, and agreeable invitations - she found out the way of being happy at home, living on the simplest of food, and contented in the homeliest